The 1933 Report on the Museums & Art Galleries of Australia: past insights, future assessments
In 1933 the Carnegie Corporation commissioned A Report on the Museums & Art Galleries of Australia. It offers a comprehensive post-Federation snapshot of the sector documenting funding models, collection development, resourcing, staffing and audience engagement. Ninety years on, many of the challenges it identified remain pertinent. Hindsight has revealed, however, some glaring omissions: including the absence of diversity and First Nations perspectives. As such it is a timely moment to consider how the sector has developed, what work still needs to be done, and the issues that the Carnegie Report failed to foresee.
This series of talks will explore the original context and themes of the Carnegie Report, to learn from the past and assess the challenges of the next 90 years of museum practice in Australia.
Wednesday 19 March, 1-2pm
Creating Space for Truth and Understanding
How can we invite audiences to engage with histories that might be uncomfortable or challenging, especially those shaped by settler colonialism? Wiradjuri librarian and museum educator Nathan mudyi Sentance has been exploring this question for over ten years. In this talk, he reflects on his work supporting First Nations representation and truth-telling in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, sharing the small but complex steps toward creating spaces that might spark change.
About the Speaker
Nathan “mudyi” Sentance is a cis Wiradjuri librarian and museum collections worker who grew up on Darkinjung Country. Nathan currently works at the Powerhouse Museum as Head of Collections, First Nations and writes about history, critical librarianship and critical museology from a First Nations perspective. His writing has been previously published in The Guardian, British Art Studies, Cordite Poetry, and Sydney Review of Books and on his own blog The Archival Decolonist.
Previous Presentations
Dr Anna Lawrenson & Dr Chiara O’Reilly (The University of Sydney)
Join us for the introductory talk of the series in which a historical overview of the Carnegie Report is discussed. In 1933, the Carnegie Report identified the “lack of funds, lack of curatorship, and consequent lack of public interest” as key challenges that the Australian museum sector needed to urgently address. This talk will inaugurate the series in its aims to identify developments in Australian museums over the intervening 90 years and highlight the emerging challenges and opportunities that were unforeseen in 1933.
Header image: Nicholson Museum, 1934
Presented in conjunction with the University of Sydney’s Museums and Heritage Studies Program